BTMDY Chapter 111

“Bo… Boss…”

 

“Did you get him?”

 

“I… I did, but…”

 

“Don’t beat around the bush. Speak up.”

 

The voice on the other end of the line was sharp and cold, completely flat, with not a trace of emotion. Even the breathing carried a faint, icy edge.

 

Wei Dayong, who had spent years working under the sun and wind at construction sites, had dark, rough skin. Even when he wasn’t making any expression, his forehead and the corners of his eyes were lined with wrinkles—looking exactly like your typical, honest, rough-and-ready migrant worker.

 

And yet, this seemingly simple man was now staring at the surveillance screen, shrinking back and stumbling over his words, fully aware he had messed things up.

 

“I already brought the person to the place you mentioned, but… but… I got the wrong guy. He’s not Lin Shen.”

 

Silence. The line went dead for almost ten seconds before the other side spoke again, each word forced through clenched teeth: “Don’t mess with me. You didn’t kidnap someone named Lu, did you?”

 

“No, no!” Wei Dayong shook his head frantically, trembling as he explained, “It’s Lin Shen’s follower… Lin Wangye…”

 

Silence again, then a sharp intake of breath. The voice seethed with barely contained anger: “How could you get it wrong?”

 

“Boss, you really can’t blame me!”

 

From the moment he had agreed to take part in this illegal business, Wei Dayong never expected to walk away unscathed.

 

For him, as long as the other side kept their promise and provided enough medical expenses to save his son, he didn’t care if it meant death or life imprisonment.

 

The boss wanted Lin Shen’s life. Wei Dayong just needed to bring the person to the designated place, set a fire, and later take all the blame himself.

 

Everything had gone smoothly. Every step of the plan had worked perfectly.

 

Who could have guessed that in a situation he thought was foolproof, he would grab the wrong person?

 

Wei Dayong knew exactly how ruthless and cruel the person on the other side could be. As soon as he realized his mistake, panic hit him—what if, in a fit of anger, they refused to pay the promised medical bills? He had to throw the blame outward, fast.

 

“The information came from your side in the first place. You said Lin Shen would come to inspect today. I even asked people and checked with coworkers—everything seemed fine. The site is full of cameras, I couldn’t get in, so I had to wait outside. It was dark, windy, and he was alone on the road—a perfect chance… I didn’t have time to see his face clearly, and I never imagined…”

 

“That’s enough!” The voice cut him off, harsh and furious, scolding him without pause. “Lin Shen and Lin Wangye are different in height, hair color, and style! Stop making excuses just because you’re useless!”

 

Wei Dayong’s brow was tight, sweat dripping down his face. “My eyesight… isn’t great. There’s nothing I can do, boss. Normally I could tell the difference, but today he was wearing the exact same clothes as Lin Shen usually does…”

 

“Shut up!”

 

“Maybe we could just let him go… pretend it never happened…”

 

“Idiot! Even if you let him go now, he knows he was kidnapped! Do you have any idea what kind of mess that would cause? You’re not getting away! If you release him now, do you think Lin Shen will let you off? Do you think Lu Chengxuan will?”

 

“Then… what should I do now?”

 

“I’ll handle it. Watch him—don’t let him get away. And don’t interact with him.”

 

“Okay… But you can’t just ignore me, boss! My son…”

 

“No matter what happens, as long as you take full responsibility, I’ll pay your son’s medical bills. But if you dare to blab…”

 

“I understand! I understand!”

 

With a sharp click, the call ended. Wei Dayong hung up the office phone and immediately turned his gaze back to the surveillance screen, eyes locked on the person inside.

 

When Lin Wangye woke up, his whole body felt weak, his mind a foggy mess. The space around him was so quiet that his own heartbeat sounded deafening.

 

The instant consciousness returned, he knew—he’d been kidnapped.

 

Scenes from every movie and TV show he’d ever watched flooded his mind, each one replaying the terrifying reality: in real-life news, people in this situation rarely came out unscathed.

 

Unknown surroundings, deprived of sight, the undeniable fact of being abducted—

 

Stacked together, these realities plunged Lin Wangye into a sudden, paralyzing wave of helplessness and panic. His fear was so intense he couldn’t even cry. His entire body began shaking uncontrollably.

 

Goosebumps rose all over, and his bones felt icy cold.

 

His hands and feet were bound tightly with hemp rope. He lay motionless on the floor, forcing himself to breathe deeply, trying to calm his wildly racing heart. After a long struggle, he regained a small fraction of his strength and began trying to rub the blindfold off.

 

No one came to stop him.

 

Lin Wangye guessed he was alone in the room for the time being, which gave him a little courage. After much effort, he finally managed to pull off the cloth and opened his eyes to survey the room.

 

Along the walls were sofas and a coffee table. The decor screamed luxury, flashy and over-the-top. There were no windows, and the interior looked a lot like a KTV private room. The only odd thing was the large oval table in the center.

 

That table looked completely out of place—unlike something a KTV would normally have—but it clearly dominated the room.

 

Lin Wangye was in the far corner of the room, too far to see what was on the table.

 

Trying to learn more, he struggled against his restraints. But the hemp ropes around his wrists and ankles were like part of his body, impossibly tight. No matter how hard he pulled or twisted, they didn’t loosen at all.

 

Failing to break free, he rolled toward the table. With immense effort, he managed to sit up and crane his neck to see.

 

The tabletop was covered in red velvet, marked with squares and numbers, each square corresponding to a chair. At the center was a circular dial that looked a bit like a clock, with numbers and arrow-like pointers.

 

Lin Wangye immediately recognized it—a gambling table.

 

Gambling is strictly prohibited on the mainland. Lin Wangye guessed he must be in an underground casino somewhere in Ningchang City or its surroundings.

 

Knowing this, half of his hope drained away.

 

The room alone made it clear: he was in a large-scale gambling den, a place completely outside the law.

 

It hadn’t been shut down, which meant it was hard to track or find.

 

Before sinking into total despair, Lin Wangye shook his head hard, trying to push away every pessimistic thought. He forced himself to think about who could have kidnapped him.

 

In his life, the only person he’d ever had any connection to gambling was Xu Shengrung.

 

But that guy was still stuck at the sewing machine—he wasn’t about to escape prison and turn into some outlaw. Beyond that, Lin Wangye couldn’t think of anyone else.

 

He hadn’t wronged a single person.

 

If revenge wasn’t an option, then the only possibility left was money.

 

He had no parents or siblings. If someone wanted to kidnap him for ransom, the only choices would be Lin Shen or the Lu family.

 

And the Lu family? Hardly anyone would dare mess with them.

 

Lin Wangye thought carefully and guessed that whoever was behind this was probably after his father.

 

He might not have made enemies, but Lin Shen definitely had.

 

First in line were Lin Shen’s poor relatives.

 

If some member of the Lin family owed huge gambling debts and had decided to take desperate measures to get money from Lin Shen through this kidnapping, the situation might not be so bad.

 

At least it would buy some time, and his life wouldn’t be immediately threatened.

 

To prevent him from escaping, the person who brought him had tied the ropes extremely tight. The pressure on his wrists cut off blood circulation, and his earlier struggles left him in sharp pain.

 

With everything still unknown, he didn’t dare make any sudden moves.

 

For now, he had to imagine the situation as optimistically as possible, just to calm himself.

 

If his mental defenses collapsed, his chances of finding an opportunity to send out information and rescue himself would drop to almost zero.

 

Still, even sitting on the floor and trying to calm down, Lin Wangye couldn’t help getting teary-eyed.

 

There was no clock in the room. He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious, or whether it was day or night.

 

But Shi Yuan would definitely notice he was missing.

 

Being discovered quickly after a kidnapping was a good thing—it maximized the chance of rescue. But thinking about it made Lin Wangye’s heart ache; he couldn’t even imagine how worried Shi Yuan must be.

 

Right now, what he regretted most was that after graduating high school, he had been so busy that he’d abandoned the habit of wearing a watch.

 

The GPS watch Lu Wei had given him had helped the police track down Xu Shengrung immediately after that incident years ago. If he’d been wearing it now, he might have already been found before he even woke up.

 

At least with a clue, the people outside wouldn’t be so frantic.

 

What was done was done. Regret was useless.

 

Where Lin Wangye was now felt like an island cut off from the world. He didn’t know where he was, he had no sense of time. No matter how much he struggled, no one stopped him. No matter how loudly he shouted, no one answered.

 

The only thing he knew was that someone was probably watching him through a ceiling camera.

 

Without any contact with another person, he didn’t even have the right to negotiate.

 

It was only later that he noticed his stomach growling, his throat dry and parched. He worried that whoever was behind this had dumped him here to fend for himself. To conserve strength and energy, he gave up struggling and simply lay on the floor, waiting for some kind of chance.

 

What he didn’t know was that while he was unconscious, a full day had already passed.

 

The moment he didn’t come home on time and couldn’t be reached, Shi Yuan realized something was wrong. He quickly contacted Lin Shen, asked for the address, and rushed out to look, all the while calling Lin Wangye nonstop. On the way, someone finally picked up.

 

But it wasn’t Lin Wangye—it was a passerby who had found the phone.

 

From the very first moment of the disappearance, Shi Yuan caught on and called the police.

 

At first, the officer on duty at the local station didn’t take it seriously. Hearing that the missing person was an adult and that there hadn’t been any ransom demands, they brushed it off, saying maybe the guy was just upset and the family should look again.

 

It wasn’t until Lin Shen and Lu Chengxuan rushed back from out of town, and Lu Wei personally applied pressure, that the case was taken seriously and officially opened.

 

The spot where Lin Wangye disappeared was hidden by thick trees, a blind spot for surveillance cameras. But the car with the fake license plate had been caught on camera.

 

That car was found quickly. The person, however, was gone.

 

When the police traced it, they discovered it was a scrapped vehicle, rebuilt from patched-together parts. There was no way to track its origin.

 

The car had been dumped in the wilderness near villages around Ningchang City, where there were no cameras. From there, it could connect to the main road through winding little paths. Any passing vehicle could have picked him up.

 

In other words, finding him now was like searching for a needle in the ocean.

 

When Shi Yuan first went to the police station, he was calm enough to explain everything in detail. He even handed over Lin Wangye’s phone and reasoned with the officers about how serious this was.

 

But the moment he saw the surveillance footage—proof that Lin Wangye had been taken away in that car with no plates—his emotions began to collapse.

 

Lin Shen and Lu Chengxuan drove through the night from the neighboring city, racing straight to the police bureau. They rushed inside to get updates, and the first thing they saw was Shi Yuan sitting on a bench in the hallway.

 

That hallway had seen who knows how many families break down in tears and screams.

 

Ordinary civil disputes usually ended at the police station. But once things reached the bureau, the urgency was on a whole new level.

 

Shi Yuan sat very still, back straight, hands folded neatly on his knees. From afar, he looked calm, as if he wasn’t worried at all.

 

But Lin Shen knew right away something was wrong. He rushed forward and saw bloodshot eyes, fists clenched so hard that the knuckles had turned white.

 

In that instant, Lin Shen could hear the silent hysteria deep inside him—like a trapped beast thrashing at the edge of death.

 

Anger and grief wrapped him like chains with thorns, tearing at his soul even though his body was untouched.

 

Lu Chengxuan slowed his steps just enough to glance at him, then turned and walked into the office without a word. Lin Shen stopped in front of Shi Yuan, standing there silently for a long time, saying nothing.

 

From the very beginning, he had guessed that the target wasn’t really Lin Wangye.

 

Maybe Shi Yuan knew that too, deep down.

 

At a time like this, even a single wrong word could shatter the last layer of his mental defenses.

 

Lin Shen knew he wasn’t good with words, so he chose silence.

 

In just one day, the police had mobilized every available unit to search. But after the car with the fake license plate was found, all leads went dead.

 

Following the clues Lin Shen provided, the police started investigating every member of the Lin family.

 

The process was long and difficult. They had to conduct careful interviews, gather alibis, and check for other possible accomplices. It was tedious and complicated.

 

After explaining the situation, Lu Chengxuan didn’t appear again.

 

Lin Shen knew he was pursuing other channels to search, so after he disappeared, Lin Shen didn’t ask much. He spent every day frantically thinking of ways and waiting at the police station for news.

 

The situation reached a standstill. Neither the police nor Lu Chengxuan had any good news.

 

It wasn’t until the third day after Lin Wangye went missing that Lin Shen received a text message.

 

[The person is in my hands.]

 

---

 

Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters.  (๑>ᴗ<๑)